Snakes and Arrows (2007)
1.Far Cry
2.Armor and Sword
3.Workin' Them Angels
4.The Larger Bowl
5.Spindrift
6.The Main Monkey Business
7.The Way The Wind Blows
8.Hope
9.Faithless
10.Bravest Face
11.Good News First
12.Malignant Narcissism
13.We Hold On
After Rush released 2002's long awaited
comeback CD Vapor Trails, the band was in a bit
of a quandry. The critics loved that album for the most part, but many of the
hard core fan was less than impressed with the grungy, distorted sound
that left you with a headache after a mere 20 minutes. Sensing this,
the band wisely goes back to an older formula of a more pristine sounded
record that was definitely a relief to most of the old fans.
This album sounds more like the band that their disciples were
clamoring for. What's better is that the material is extremely sharp in
its production and is well done in terms of overall quality. To be fair, it's a bit
front-loaded, and the album does lose a bit of its punch a little more than half way
through, but the first several songs are so strong, that any setbacks are
very forgivable.
It only takes the first ten seconds of many of the songs to realize
that you are listening to a Rush album - the trademark guitar, bass and
drums are unmistakable - even before Geddy has a chance to inject his
high pitched trademark croon. As a matter of fact, there are
three instrumentals on this album (granted, one is a short
acoustic guitar solo) which is a treat since those seems to be the songs
their fans like the most. Lyrically, the album is one of the band's
most darkest. Neil takes shots at politics and religion (both eastern
and western - he never lets us forget) and it's a bit of a shame that he
is so adamantly Faithless as the song of that title tells us. It's not
so bad on songs like Armor and Sword, but his arrogance on songs
such as The Way The Wind Blows is a little ridiculous. Other
songs like The Larger Bowl aren't very encouraging either - they
sing about how unfair it is that some have so many why others have so
few. I've never particularly cared when rich rock stars have the nerve
to scream about the injustices that they seem to uncover everywhere.
Still, the band's share of followers will no doubtly gladly sing along
to these anthems, and you can't blame the band for singing about what
they truly think and feel.
When the band undertook their (customary) mammoth tour that supported
the album, you could tell just how proud they were of this work when
they played a total of nine songs from the album. As they
produced more and more material, they had been lately forced to only
cover three or four new tracks from their latest album in their shows. Of course, Rush fans are
among the most fickle, and it was a bit surprising how many didn't like
this album either. Personally, I thought it rocked. I also thought it
was the best thing they had done in almost twenty years. I can even
overlook the depressing lyrics.
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